Wooster Drops Saturday Home Matches

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster volleyball team kicked off fall break with a home tri-match and dropped both ends of it, with visiting DePauw University winning Saturday's opener 25-15, 23-25, 25-17, 25-13 and Otterbein University taking the nightcap 25-14, 25-16, 25-23.

Wooster (6-8, 0-2 North Coast Athletic Conference) regrouped late to even the DePauw (8-7, 2-0 NCAC) match at one set each. The Scots closed the frame with a 9-5 run, with senior Caroline Dillard at the forefront. The senior's kill tied the frame at 18 and then Dillard and classmate Troy Johnson knocked down Belle Shelton's attack on the next point. Dillard's fourth kill of the frame gave Wooster a two-point cushion at 21-19. Junior Tamara Turner's kill tied set two at 22 all, then junior Amelia Mitchell followed with a kill to tilt the lead in Wooster's favor. First-year Jordan Laraway's well-placed serve just beyond the 10-foot line was too much for DePauw's Olivia Karwin to handle, then Mitchell finished off the Tigers with a kill.

Long runs carried DePauw in the final two sets. In the third, the Tigers had three runs of 4-0 or better. Katie Gansle dominated during one of them with three straight kills that made it a 17-8 frame. Wooster responded late with a Dillard kill and a block by first-year Kora Burill and Johnson that capped a 3-0 Wooster stretch.

A quartet of 4-0 or better stretches gradually grew DePauw's lead in the fourth set. Wooster again had a spirited effort late, with kills by Turner and Dillard warding off a pair of Tigers match points. DePauw hit .366 in the final set and did not have an attack error on 41 swings.

Senior Trinity Harmon surpassed 20 digs for the third time this season with a match-high 23. Fellow senior Ty Thompson finished two kills shy of a triple-double and had 15 assists and 13 digs on the DePauw stat sheet. Dillard and Turner had 10 kills apiece for Wooster.

Olivia Haas' triple-double led DePauw. She finished with 23 assists, 13 digs, and 10 kills. DePauw had nine aces and eight blocks in the match.

An overturned call from Wooster's challenge on match point nearly helped the Scots rally all the way back against Otterbein (12-7). Thompson's kill had Wooster within 24-20, then three straight Otterbein attack errors occurred. Mitchell and Thompson denied Otterbein's Rylee Ritzhaupt on the middle one, but the Cardinals' player got the final kill of the day to drop following a timeout.

Following the lead of Turner, Wooster found some momentum early in the second set. The Scots' junior had six kills in the frame, with three of them coming during a 5-0 Scots' run. Mitchell and Thompson had a block during the stretch and blocking was a big difference in the second set overall, with the teams combining for seven.

Turner finished the Otterbein match with high honors in kills at 11. Johnson's six blocks led the way for Wooster, which had eight overall.

Kennedy Hoffman scored 10 kills for Otterbein, which had 11 blocks of its own, five from Aubrey Geis, and four each from Kristen Scherger and Emily Skelley.

Next, Wooster is at Denison University (7-8, 1-1 NCAC) for a 1 p.m. match on Saturday, October 7.